Day 2
Rush
Clouds looming
Just cars
Jogging people
Laborers having breakfast at the new graduate building
At Makiling’s foot, man cannot keep up with nature. Nature cannot keep up with man. Each point in the geography, in the landscape, even one’s immediate space is a manifestation of this tension. Sometines they even out (as in Freedom Park). Sometimes nature consumes all (as in abandoned houses near Forestry). Sometimes man is obviously winning (the new library)
Listening to Doc Ortiz last night shows even this tension. I am grateful I am reminded of this tension while I live here.
Sometimes I want to leave LB. But often I realize what is the alternative? And that makes me feel more grateful of the status quo.
Make friends with children
So mny good thing could happen in the morning im underutilizing it.
Yellow black butterfly
Laborers line up for a photograph.
These walks are a dance between walking, writing, and photography. I never force the writing. I focus on looking and that is photogtaphy. As long as you take care of images, words will follow. You take care of images by walking right:
Shitsu on the window i disnt catch. The best photos are the photos we never take.
For the missive later aim to write systematically about the walk and place. Just try.
Herons
Someone’s cooking daing
Shy dog
The trees sustain me. They always make me want to be a better person.
When I was setting the route for this walk I realized I did it almost by intuition. That is how much I have walked these paths.
A family passed by.
I sometimes find myself debating whether to have children or not. Things are getting worse, it seems evil to bring people into this mess. I think I’ll be overly attached to them and to their children. And i am afraid i might pass on something bad. I now know that love is impossoble without these fears. LB is a good place to have a family. It lessens the bad inherent in the world.
I am grateful for all these going up. They extend my life.
Ode to talinum
Lone students sit under the sheds at forestry. A group of profs all boys or are these admin? Gather around a tree. I heard someone say recently that kids wear clothes different than what we wore ten days ago. I beg to differ: jeans are still the norm, polo shirts abound, and sneakers if not slippers are still the national footwear of UP students.
Why am I agnostic?
!When writing the missive, prioritize subject you know you want to extend. Others, use simply for transitions or aesthetics.
Write about the concrete street name signs.
Low lying powerlines.
We live so close with Nature here that we’ve been so unaware of it. As if proximity makes us blind. What does this teach me about faith on a universal cooperative society?
In the forest there us no chatter. Its like an ongoing sesshin. Broken only by gentle sounds. If this is the wilderness of the spirit, I would very much want to stay here.
I can feel the tension on my feet and the tiredness in my torso. But I keep on.
Write a history of this place. Why the van? Why the stairs? Why the ruins? Why the silence?
Cutters day.
Lawibn shows up.
Rest
Arbor Square
Begin with talinum
Then talk about the walk